Poached Chicken Infused with Rosemary and Lemon

This is the best poached chicken recipe ever. My mom has been making it for years and although simple it’s shockingly delicious, super tender / moist, and these two complementary flavors (lemon and rosemary) burst to life with every bite. In addition, this poached chicken is SO SO SO versatile and it can be used in so many different recipes and meals throughout the week. It can be chopped into cubes for a chicken salad sandwich, shredded (using two forks) for tacos, or sliced into strips for a salad. You can even add seasoning to it for a different recipe if needed (like taco spice mix).

Poached chicken has to be one of the best ways to prepare for a healthy week. You can wait to buy your chicken on sale, store it in the freezer, and make this at the start of the week in big batches. This is probably our favorite way to use chicken breast because it’s guaranteed to result in a tender/juicy piece of chicken. We love grilling and roasting chicken as well, but it can be tricker to avoid drying it out. We find the end result is tastier when using chicken breasts that still have the skin and bones, but you can also go with boneless, skinless breasts and it will still be delicious. Either way, you will be removing the skin and bones once poached.

Image from Bowl of Delicious

Ingredients

• 1 cup white wine

• 2 cups chicken broth

• ½ onion sliced

• Pinch of cayenne

• 1 lemon juiced

• Salt to taste

• Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

• 4 chicken breasts with bone and skin on (Optional: boneless, skinless chicken breast works too)

Instructions

1. Get some water boiling in a sauté pan with all the ingredients (except chicken). Use a wide deep pan.

2. Once boiling, slip in the chicken breasts so that they’re covered (fully submerged) by at least 1 inch of water and turn down to simmer. Do not to let the cooking liquid come to a boil or even a vigorous simmer or you will end up with a tough piece of chicken.

3. It’s ready when it has an internal temperature of 160F which usually takes about 12 to 15 minutes). You can test the thickest piece of chicken with an instant read thermometer - or keep the thermometer in one the chicken breasts throughout the poaching process. Once done, remove the chicken.

4. Leave it out until its cool enough to strip off the skin and bones.

5. Store in the fridge covered for up to 3 days.

6. Save the liquid for soup stock.